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[tags]long beach, surf, bus, transit, youth, outdoors, orange county[/tags]
The City Council of Long Beach may create a “Surf Bus” to take inner-city youths to nearby beaches, where they can learn to surf and engage in other wholesome outdoorsy activities. Presumably, the nearby beaches include those in Orange County (like Huntington), or maybe the South Bay. It’s modeled after the LA Surf Bus, which takes inner city LA youth to Santa Monica and other beaches.
Here’s a link to the story on LBReport.com.
I strongly support reconnecting urban youth with the outdoors, and I strongly support transit. But this story raised a few flags:
-Is a dedicated bus necessary, when OCTA and other agencies already take people from downtown Long Beach to surfable beaches? Is a youth-only bus service necessary for liability issues?
-Isn’t it kind of sad that Long Beach, once the surfing capital of SoCal, has to outsource our beaches? Our beach is surfless (thanks to the Breakwater) and dirty (thanks to y’all living in the LA and San Gabriel River watersheds, as well as our offshore oil rigs).
OK, that’s my thoughts on this issue. I’d like to hear yours!
Discussion
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Please keep discussions civil: exercise Troll Controll.
Hello from LA Surf Bus!
I heard about what you want to do…and why can’t we do this for you? I have gotten calls from Long Beach Parks and Poly and we will be expanding to include your area next year (2008). As you can imagine…there is far more to this than filling up a bus! Our staff is trained! We teach the sea! It is much more than just another park and rec job. I had a staff of over 70 working this program.
We have the exclusive permit to bring them to Huntington Beach. I can assure you that they just won’t let another group come in as they need to know you can hold it together with safety issues. and yes, we have all the insurance.
Get in touch as we are here to make it happen
Mary
founder/director
La Surf Bus
contact me thru the website
Thanks!!
You may want to contact the Long Beach City Council directly (or their staff) and let them know you’re interested in participating. We’re just a blog for people who want to talk about transit!
There is also the Beach Bus, which County Supervisors have been funding for years (on its last two weeks). They mostly cater to an audience of kids and families, although I wish they would pick a less crowded beach than Santa Monica, especially on the weekends.